RUSH: Okay. The first thing you have to know is that the Drive-By Media is trying to shift your attention away from tonight’s State of the Union Address because they know it’s going to be a grand-slam home run. The Democrats would love to be able to be giving a State of the Union speech with the state of the union the way it is right now.
But they can’t, and they never will be because they don’t support policies and getting out of the way, permitting things like what are happening in our economy now and throughout the country to happen. The Democrats’ own policy initiatives get in the way of this kind of progress, but they still salivate. They would love to be able to say that their policies create this kind of economic boom, but they can’t. So they are shifting attention away from the speech tonight. They’re trying to tell you that you already know what it’s gonna say.
They’re giving it a grade already and they’re saying it’s gonna be like every other State of the Union speech. People are gonna love it, people are gonna hate it. There’s gonna be post-speech responses and comments and then we’re gonna move on.
With every Barack Obama State of the Union speech it was a countdown and setup to the latest oratorical greatness that was going to change the world and the universe and prepare us to colonize Mars with Stephen Hawking leading the way, his global warming contingent of scientists telling us all how to do it.
This is an entirely different circumstance. The Democrats, nobody in the American left, the American deep state, the administrative state, whatever you want to call it, ever dreamed anything like this would happen with Donald Trump in the White House. Even when they were back in the campaign and pondering the possibility he could win, it still wasn’t gonna be like this.
They remain gobsmacked. They remain stunned and shocked, bewildered, angry, dangerously reckless over the fact that they haven’t been able to get rid of Trump and that they haven’t been able to stop Trump.
What they now are focusing on is the memo, or, as Nancy Pelosi calls it, “the Dennis Nunes memo.” She doesn’t even know his name. He’s the Republican chairman the House Intelligence Committee, and Nancy Pelosi, who knows, she may not even know her name, depending on the time of day, anymore.
Greetings, folks. 800-282-2882, you want to be on the program. Email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. I picked at random today, at random. It didn’t matter where you picked it, just pick anything in the Drive-By Media about the State of the Union speech tonight. I happened to pick one from the New York Times by a columnist named David Leonhardt. The headline of his piece is, “The Nunes Conspiracy.” But he begins exactly as you’ll see everywhere in the Drive-Bys today.
“First, a few words on the State of the Union address. There will be a lot of meaningless commentary about President Trump’s speech tonight. His critics will criticize him, his supporters will praise him and pundits will throw around the word ‘reset.’ You can safely ignore most of it. ‘State of the Union speeches have a celebrated history of not making much of an impact,'” and he quotes some no-name from the Huffing and Puffington Post here in making the point that State of the Union speeches have a celebrated history of not making much of an impact.
Not when Obama gave ’em. Not when Slick Willie gave ’em. The last thing they were was dull or boring or no impact. They were blueprints of the dreamland future of the American left, and they rapt attention. They could not ignore them. And the last thing they told anybody to do was to not watch. In fact, when State of the Union speech ratings for Obama continue to decline, the media was nervous and mad at the public for not understanding the brilliance that surrounded them and was leading them.
But people didn’t care about Obama’s State of the Union shows because that’s what they were. They were just a wish list of government giveaways. It was Obama defining on how he planned on being Santa Claus for the upcoming year. Back to David Leonhardt.
“The speeches at the State of the Union show “are rarely memorable, and many of the people who watch are already supporters of the president. … The most important part of the speech is the process of winnowing policy ideas that happens behind the scenes, before the speech. But Trump’s erratic and uninformed approach to policy means that he may lack that benefit, Jonathan Bernstein argues in Bloomberg View.”
So the speech is nothing. Nothing to see here. Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. His supporters are gonna love it. His haters are not gonna love it. The pundits are gonna pundit. And there’s no reason you should pay attention. Well, the reason they don’t want you paying attention is precisely because the state of the union right now is kick-ass. And they are just envious as they can be that it is a Republican president who will have the opportunity to command a national prime time audience to detail it.
They will never be able — there’s not a Democrat president alive today, a potential Democrat president alive today who could give a speech with the content and substance that Trump’s tonight will be. Because conditions in America would never, ever be as they are now in Trump’s presidency. And dutifully, here comes Reuters saying, “You know what?” Reuters has done a national survey. You know what they found? They can’t find anybody who’s gotten a raise.
Reuters can’t find very many people who’ve gotten bonuses. Reuters can’t find anybody that’s had really a significant positive boost or impact from Trump’s tax cut. Isn’t it amazing? Two hundred companies have announced raises, bonuses, benefits. The latest is ExxonMobil with a gigantic package of compensation increases for their employees. And Reuters can’t find anybody. Reuters can’t find anybody, meaningful numbers of people who have benefited yet from the Trump tax cuts.
Let’s not forget, by the way, they haven’t gone into effect yet. They don’t kick in until next month. The withholding tables, the IRS is still reconfiguring the withholding tables based on how many deductions you put down on your W-4. It is a W-4, right? It’s a W-4. That’s what you fill out when you get hired. They don’t start withholding money ’til next month. So here’s Reuters, “Well, so tell us what the big tax cut’s meant to you.”
“I ain’t seen anything yet, Reuters, maybe Trump’s lying to us.” Now, Reuters doesn’t tell whoever they’re asking, “Well, it hasn’t kicked in yet. Doesn’t start ’til next month.” Reuters, ask ’em this sometime around March. Go back and do a follow-up story in March and see what you get.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have a promo, a great the promo we just got today for CNN’s coverage of the State of the Union tonight. We’ve put together a little parody here to feature how CNN might promo the event. (interruption) Do you have that ready to go? Well, here it is. (interruption) Listen to this.
ANNOUNCER: CNN is the place to watch the State of the Union. Where else can you keep up with the president’s demeanor score, bipartisan applause levels, and get the endless speculation you crave that has nothing to do with the speech?
REPORTER: Is it possible the Russians chose that tie for him, Bob?
REPORTER: Well, our confidential sources say it’s a very popular color in the Kremlin these days.
ANNOUNCER: Read between the lines of Donald Trump’s State of the Union with us tonight on CNN.
RUSH: “Did the Russians choose Trump’s tie, Bob?” Russia, Russia, Russia.